A Pause Worthy Of Acknowledging

Harav Rabbi Shimshon Dovid Pincus zt”l, who was niftar in 2001 at the young age of 56, conveyed a powerful parable on the topic of concentration of tefillah.

Imagine that you are headed to a wedding and you are trying to have a conversation with somebody across the hall. Think for a moment how you would grab your friend’s attention. You may decide to cup your hands into a cone and shout out, “Hey, how are you doing?” Using this technique, you can get out one or two sentences, but the conversation certainly will not last very long. You will inevitably be interrupted by people passing by and exchanging kisses and hugs along with greetings of “Mazal Tov!”

You would be better off to call the acquaintance over, then go into the hallway and have a face-to-face conversation where you will really be able to communicate with your friend and have an in depth discussion getting past all the noise and distractions inside the ballroom.

A similar situation is true regarding both prayer and all kinds of tefillot. A person should not make a crash landing into Shacharit or make a sudden appearance at a Mincha or Arvit service. We must first completely segregate ourselves from the distractions of life. Often, we are accustomed getting lost in the world of WhatsApp videos and other forms of social media. We certainly should not be involved in these interferences just as we are walking into prayer.

If that happening is not common in your lifestyle, maybe the following will jog a memory. You wake up very early in the morning and you have a bunch of conversations. Then, you march into shul still engrossed in a chat with a friend you met while entering the facility and you begin to prep you tefillin.

If you want to have real concentration, then you must find the means to get past the distractions in your mind and weed out the noise and clutter that passes. Our brains are overloaded with a long list of disruptions from issues at work to news on life and all the everyday things that are going on around us. Think for a moment about the commotion that surrounds you, from the back and forth conversation with those closest to you where you hear about the worries of other. Then, you mind wanders into the never-ending grocery list of tasks you must accomplish over the day. When you take a moment to breath, you realize that you must find the path to get past the racket and interruptions around you in order to have a real long conversation with Hashem as you immerse in prayer.

There is no such concept of crashing into davening, rather you must take the time to walk into the prayers a few minutes early and take a few moments to sit and contemplate what you are about to undertake. Say to yourself, “What am I about to do?” Then, pause and continue in that same trance, “I am about to talk to the Creator of the World!” For many that notion does not seem practical, but the advice here is straightforward… do it even if you fake it. Yes, read that again… you were just given permission to fake it. You should say these two lines anyway and watch how it will slowly but surely make an enormous difference.

By Rabbi Yaakov Rahimi